Disabling "Allow row to break across pages"

I'm composing a document with Word 2010.

I've got a table with three columns. After the heading row, there are two cells in the first column. Each cell in the first column is followed by two cells in the second column, and each cell in the second column is followed by two cells in the third column.

Every row in the table has "Allow row to break across pages" disabled.

The table spans a page break between the third and fourth cells in the third column -- breaking in the middle of the second cell in the second column, and the first cell in the first column.

Apparently the condition "don't allow row to break across pages" is satisfied if any cell in the row is prevented from breaking across pages, and the other cells can break to their hearts' content.

That's a solution in the manner of "Doc, it hurts when I laugh./Don't laugh." I'm hoping for something more elegant!

The table's length is a substantial fraction of a page, and a break between rows (that is, between rows in all of the columns) is entirely acceptable. I'm hoping for some way to make it do that.

You asked for a workaround, not for a genuine solution.

I've found that in various cases in Word, the best way is to work around the problem rather than beat your head against the wall trying to actually fix it.

If I want to make sure that I will have the default formatting (font size and style, margins, etc.) before or after something odd like a table, I insert a few blank lines, and then I create the table in the middle of the group of blank lines. Then all I have to do is cursor up to before the table, or cursor down to after the table, and I have my default formatting available for use. The problem is that if my cursor is at the end of the table, and I hit a carriage return or two, I often am stuck with whatever formatting the table has. By putting some "space" at the end of the table before creating it, the "space" has my default formatting, and I don't have to then fight with Word to get things back to the default way.

mrjim, sorry about this misunderstanding. I ask for a "workaround" automatically when I post problems like this in forums, because I can't expect anyone but the manufacturer to provide a solution. (In MS's case I don't expect the mfr to provide a solution either, but one can dream.)

By "workaround" I meant "A possibly non-obvious way of making the stupid software do what it ought to do." Yeah, I can put a page break before the table... or fake a table that spans pages with the break in the right place... and try to remember to check whether it has to be jiggled every time I change the preceding text... but that's not how I like to solve problems, particularly when I'm supposed to be delivering professional work for money.

The thing is, some things are simply too much of a pain in the neck to try to figure out, especially if I have an easy "workaround".

The bit about putting some blank lines in my Word document, and then creating or inserting a table in the middle of the blank lines, has become a habit for me. It is an extremely easy way to avoid the problem of the object forcing me to use its formatting from that point forward in the document.

If there was a Reveal Codes function in Word, such as was in Word Perfect, it would be easy to overcome these sorts of problems without having to resort to tricks.

Your advice is spot on except for the last command. Keep lines together works within paragraphs and, since end-of-cell and end-of-row markers are types of paragraph marks, won't work here. Instead, Keep with next, which works between paragraphs, should be used--being careful to select up to, but not including the last row of the set.

(I always forget why Keep lines together doesn't work the way I first expected it to, so I had to look it up...again.)

Thanks, but I don't understand your comment. I understand the difference between between Keep Lines Together and Keep With Next, however, when I tested it on the sample table provided by the OP Keep With Next did not work! On the other hand Keep lines together with the shown highlighting did keep the entire group, defined by Col 1 moved to the next page as I think the OP required. Yes/No ?

Now that I look again at your picture, though, I see that the selection did not catch the end-of-row markers. I usually select a row by clicking outside the table and to the left of it, which selects the entire row, not just all the cells in the row. That explains the difference in our results!

1. For Mrjimphelps: Word has several "reveal formatting" options to make it easy to avoid the bad habits you cite. Press Shift-F1 to bring up the Reveal Formatting pane to be able to see many different levels of formatting. The ¶ button toggles the view of non-printing characters so you can easily see page and section breaks, spaces and tabs -- but also gives you cues for where object anchors and keep conditions are set. Word Options offers several more possibilities to show formatting cues as well. In this thread, the small square block indicator will show when Keep With Next or Keep Together conditions are applied. Unlike the character-based WordPerfect, Word formatting is based on pointers to structural elements, so workarounds like using multiple Returns (or even hard page breaks) are unnecessary and actually work against efficiency in Word. (Each Return contains all of the paragraph formatting information, so using >1 increases the document size and complexity for no real benefit.)

2. For jsachs177: Note that you can use Word's Table Properties dialog to cause a table of <1 page to let content flow around it. In your example, you could thus have the copy flow past the table to allow it to fit on the 1st page, or set the anchor point further along and let the table occupy the top of the following page. I do understand that your sample may be a smaller portion of a larger table, but it is worth considering to keep <1-page tables together on a page.

And re RetiredGeek's solution, selecting the cells to Keep With Next is a lot easier if you drop out of Print Layout view to the Draft view because you won't be hindered by the carry-over headings when you try to do a select with the mouse.